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The Enigmatic Nazca Lines: A Geoglyphic Wonder
An overview of the Nazca Lines of southern Peru: what figures and lines exist, how large they are, who made them, and why the desert preserved them.
The Americas
The Nazca Lines and the puzzles of the ancient Andes.
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An overview of the Nazca Lines of southern Peru: what figures and lines exist, how large they are, who made them, and why the desert preserved them.
A guide to the shapes found on the Nazca Pampa in Peru: straight lines, trapezoids, spirals, animal and plant figures, and where each kind tends to lie.
How the Nazca geoglyphs were made and dated: clearing dark stones, setting out lines with stakes and cord, and using pottery and wooden stakes for dating.
Who made the Nazca Lines? A look at the Nazca culture of southern Peru, its painted pottery, Cahuachi, underground aqueducts and Andean neighbours.
The main theories about why the Nazca Lines were made: astronomy, ritual pathways, water and fertility cults, and why the alien claims are rejected.
The story of Paul Kosok and Maria Reiche, who from the 1940s mapped, studied and campaigned to protect the Nazca Lines of southern Peru.
A guide to the best-known Nazca figures, including the hummingbird, monkey, spider and condor, with approximate sizes and how each is drawn in one line.
How the Nazca Lines came to wider attention in the 1920s and 1930s through hikers and airline pilots, and how they reached UNESCO World Heritage status in 1994.
How Nazca geoglyph motifs compare with those painted on Nazca pottery and woven in textiles, and what the shared imagery may say about their symbolism.
The older hillside geoglyphs of Palpa in Peru, linked to the Paracas and Topara peoples, and how they differ from the Nazca pampa lines.
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